For a while there, we thought we'd driven you into a stalemate; the cost of high-potency anti-aids drugs went from $10,000 a person in 1996 down to $75 per year. But then things went south:
The drugs didn’t cure anybody—HIV still lurks in the bodies of the nearly 22 million treated individuals.
Any interruption in treatment allowed the virus to emerge from its hiding places and re-infect the patient. Plenty of interruptions occurred. Today, the number of infected people is estimated at at least 37 million, worldwide. The number of resultant fatalities is expected to be staggering.
